In a typical wireless computer communication system, the source of the information to be transmitted or received requires a user to have a recognized userid on a messaging server. Messaging servers typically deal with the transmission and reception of data within an Enterprise. Enterprise servers as described herein are distinct from the messaging servers and control the transmission and reception of data to and from wireless mobile communications devices via wireless communication networks outside of the Enterprise.
The messaging servers and their permissions for access are distinct from the Enterprise servers and their permission of access. Thus, when adding a new user to a messaging server, if the user is to be enabled for mobile messaging functions, the user must also be recognized by an Enterprise server. Traditionally, this would require that the administrator be familiar with the procedures of both the messaging servers and the Enterprise servers, which may be quite disparate systems. For example, a messaging server may be a Microsoft Exchange Server and the Enterprise server a BlackBerry™ Enterprise Server, each of which has a different administration interface. An example of such an Enterprise server is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,219,694, which was issued to the assignee of the present application on Apr. 17, 2001 and is hereby incorporated by reference. Further, for security reasons it may not be advisable to provide administrators the passwords required to modify user access on both Exchange and Enterprise servers.
Thus, there is a need for an interface that will permit an administrator to administer user accounts on messaging and Enterprise servers without requiring familiarity of the administration interfaces of either. Further, there is a need for an interface that provides restricted access to a limited set of administration functions to protect the security of both Exchange servers and Enterprise servers. The present invention addresses this need.